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The Road to Edoras  by Dreamflower 6 Review(s)
LarnerReviewed Chapter: 3 on 4/11/2005
Ah, dried mushrooms and pheasant--sounds wonderful! Very hobbity!

Author Reply: The travellers now have lots of hobbity meals to look forward to! *grin*

Mysterious JediReviewed Chapter: 3 on 4/4/2005
I wish I could travel with hobbits. Sounds like good eats!

Author Reply: Good eats indeed! I imagine that some of the Men are going to need their armor altered, LOL!

KittyReviewed Chapter: 3 on 4/4/2005
She nodded. These Men had some very strange customs. Why not just use coin to begin with? Ah, well. Perhaps that was too simple.
*lol*
Of course, the Men have no plain Hobbit sense ;-)

Poor Viola, this is not so easy for her. She is the only one Hobbit who is not truly on her own free will on her way to Gondor (with exception of the prisoners, of course). It is surely quite frightening at times.

Author Reply: *chuckle* Well, of course there are some practical reasons for the chits, but they are not immediately obvious to hobbits, who have no experience of armies.

Yes, Viola has felt constrained by her ties to her mistress, not to mention the fact that she is the most typically "hobbity" hobbit in the group, as well as being a lass. But she loves her mistress, and she does want to be a good healer. She will find a way to overcome her timidity as time goes by.

BodkinReviewed Chapter: 3 on 4/4/2005
The Men are determined to protect the Hobbits, aren't they. Just in case. It must be very tempting for them to treat adult hobbits as being younger and more helpless than they are - size being so linked with maturity in the eyes of men. And yet, there is also an innocence about the wider world that means that they do need shielding.

Like the immediate recognition of a good fruit and veg stall (hobbit-run, of course). And the break for lunch. Viola's need to remain close to safety is very recognisable, too - and Poppy will probably look back on it wistfully once the girl really finds her feet and starts heading off into the unknown.

Glad to see Clovis has been silenced.

Author Reply: Well, there is even a bit more to the protectiveness to that, in my way of thinking. I have a theory that the *majority* of hobbits have something about them that will actually *trigger* the protective instincts of the majority of Big Folk, and cause them to become fond of them very quickly. I think of it as an unconscious defense mechanism working in hobbits' favor. It's a sort of special charisma they have, and certain hobbits, such as Frodo and his cousins, have more than others. If you look at the reactions of most Big Folk to the hobbits in LotR, you can see that there is evidence of a sort for it: how quickly Strider pledges his allegiance to Frodo in Bree; the reactions of them all on Caradhras, for example; Boromir's fierce defense of Merry and Pippin; the Three Hunters' determination to rescue the younger hobbits once they realize the Ringbearer is out of reach; Faramir's admiration for Frodo and Sam upon very short acquaintance; Eowyn's willingness to take Merry along...I could go on and on...

The converse side of this is that a *few* hobbits, such as the S.-B.s, Sandyman, the Bankses and Hyacinth, for example, are defective in that they *lack* this charisma altogether.

Anyway, off of my soapbox for now, and thanks for the lovely review!

Grey WondererReviewed Chapter: 3 on 4/3/2005
So now the Bree hobbits have a bit of gossip! At least they will be able to recognize the prisoners should they escape at any point and try to make a life in Bree. I think Dago is thinking along those lines even if the Banks group is not. Poppy seems to be doing quite well in all of this and I do hope that Viola gets used to things.

Author Reply: I think the merchants and other folk of Bree are going to have plenty to gossip about by the time the party of King's folk leaves. Dago's mind is working, true. But I think he realizes that Bree would be too soon to make a break--they are too close to the Shire still.

Actually, Poppy is the most adventurous of all the hobbits who are going, with the possible exception of Jolly. It was her own idea to go, and her motives are her own as well. Freddy volunteered to get away from memories of Folco for a while; Berilac out of hero-worship for his cousins; Rolly and Denny were basically volunteered by their shrewd old father; Mosco offered to go out of a sense of protectiveness for Poppy; and Viola simply because she's Poppy's apprentice. I think that Poppy might have planned to go south even if there had been no other hobbits going. Once she had made use of athelas and of the ointment Aragorn had made for Frodo, once she had seen the extent of the injuries Pippin had survived, she was bound to want to know more.

As timid as Viola is, she has pluck, and her fondness for her mistress will help. And she will gradually have another motive as well...

GamgeeFestReviewed Chapter: 3 on 4/3/2005
"Perhaps that was too simple. "

Loved that. Hobbits are so used to doing things practically. But I'm sure the Men have a good reason for using the chits. They don't want to take too much money into town with them. At camp they can gaurd it better and then, as Poppy discovered, they can get their purchases delivered to them instead of carry them back.

Clovis is gagged! But we didn't get to see it happen. *pouts*


Author Reply: Yes, you have it figured out exactly. Poppy is a pretty smart person, but she is still not quite used to the way things are different outside the Shire.

Well, it won't be the last time it happens, trust me, LOL!

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